Index of /Documentation/Papers/
Files in this area (updated 10-Mar-2026)
1eUnix_creation_restoration.pdf
First edition Unix: Its creation and restoration by Warren Toomey 01-Jan-2010
2dsh.pdf
2dsh - An Experimental Shell for Connectining Processes with
Multiple Data Streams by Marc J. Rochkind 01-Aug-1980. Scanned
by Doug McIlroy, forwarded to TUHS by Arnold Robbins.
BSTJ/ (directory)
The Bell System Technology Journal Volume 57 July-August 1978
pgs 1897-2304. "The Unix Time-Sharing System" There are 21
papers, plus the preface, by many different authors describing
the system itself, as well as subsystems and some important
deployment schemes.
Email_No_Aliases/ (directory)
"Electronic Mail Without Aliases" by Jane Elliott and Mike Lesk
Details the state of e-mail at Bell Labs in 1980.
Four_Generations_of_Portable_C_Compiler_DM_Kristol_19860609.pdf
Four Generations of Portable C Compiler by David Kristol (unknown
original publication date). Steve Johnson's Portable C Compiler
(PCC) evolved through three further generations (PCC2), QCC,
and RCC) that have improved its speed, generality, and code
quality. The C front end PCC2, QCC, and RCC is identical and
is essentially the same front end as that used in PCC except
that it has better error checking and greater robustness. The
principal differences, then, are in the respective code generation
strategies, and they are the topic of this paper.
Interprocess_Communications_in_the_8th_Edition_Unix_Ritchie+Presotto_USENIX_SUMMER_19850612.pdf
Interprocess Communication in the Eighth Edition Unix System
by Dave Presotto and Dennis Ritchie, 12-June-1985
lions_PCCpass2_jun1979.pdf
A report on the second pass of the Portable C Compiler, written
by John Lions in June 1979. Many thanks to Al Kossow who scanned
this in from the original paper document.
Spi15c.pdf
A Repository with 44 Years of Unix Evolution by Diomidis Spinellis
(unknown original publication date). This paper follows the
evolution of the Unix operating system, which is made available as
a version-control repository, covering the period from its
inception in 1972 as a five thousand line kernel, to 2015 as a
widely-used 26 million line system.
TuningUnixLex_Jacobson_USENIX_Winter_1987_pp163_164.pdf
"Tuning UNIX Lex" by Van Jacobson is the abstract from a talk
he gave at the Winter 1987 USENIX conference, although the
paper is not in the proceedings and may be lost to time.
ugly.pdf
"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Unix Legacy" by Rob Pike
is a talk Rob gave in Copenhagen during a conference over 8-9
September 2001. These are his slides.
unix_cacm74.pdf
This is the paper that started it all: "The UNIX Timesharing
System" by Dennis and Ken as published in CACM Volume 17,
Number 7, July 1974
Unix_Users_Talk_Notes_Jan73.pdf
A seminar for UNIX Users on 15-Jan-1973
US4135240.pdf
Dennis Ritchie's patent for the setuid bit: "Protection of data file contents"
1973-07-09 Application filed by Bell Telephone Laboratories Inc
1979-01-16 Application granted, and published as US4135240A